SoMaFusion :: travelogue

getting closer
Originally uploaded by LeLon Is Idea(L)

I mentioned the other day that we found a designer – the talented Mr. Lefteris Koulonis (see his updates on Less Like More and you’ll know) and we are working with him to come up with our logo.

I finished our design brief, Manolis went over it and he’s happy as well so I’ve just whizzed it off to Lefteris.

I just wanted to blog about what a design brief is all about. I could write a lot but I think the picture above says it all (and what do you know, it’s one from Lefteris’ photostream).

A design brief is all about getting closer to your vision, to your designer and to your audience.

It should be a succinct document (not necessarily short. But definitely very clear) which will help the designer understand who you are, what you do, what’s your vision, what’s your market, what are your design preferences. It is definitely not a document whereby you instruct the designer what to do. It is a document that puts your designer in a frame of mind.

Ours includes

• Introduction to SoMaFusion
• Market Position
• Activities
• Main message/ vision
• What the company name means
• Our requirements (in terms of where & how we will be using the logo

I doubt that’s enough but I think that for now they will introduce Lefteris to what we are all about and we will be able to discuss further and find more areas that we want to explore as we go along.

——
Here are some good resources I found on writing a design brief.
- How do you write a design brief? by David Airey
- The Ultimate Design Brief by Shaun Crowley on Freelance Switch
- The Logo Design Process of TOP Logo Designers by Jacob Cass on Just Creative Design

I blogged a few days ago about what we believe in so here are a few more details on what Simple, Smart and Sensible means for SoMaFusion

SoMaFusion is a provider of Internet and digital comms services based in London. Our projects require Simple – Smart and Sensible presentation of the client.

SoMaFusion undertakes web development, online communications services and digital engagement. It also provides advice on electronic commerce, strategic communications and social media, online presence, etc.

We aim to provide what each customer needs. Our philosophy is expressed through the threefold simple, smart and sensible.

Simple: The simplest solutions are usually the ones that work best for the user. We do not promote services that the customer does not need. We analyze needs together and find the best product.

Smart: The products and the solutions we propose are always appropriate for the client. We believe in open source solutions and tools that do their job better and baster than any closed system ever could.

Sensible: There are no projects that are too small for us. Even the smallest project is treated with respect and enthusiasm.

While brainstorming the other day we came across bubbl.us – a free web application that lets you brainstorm online and it also allows you to embed content.

We have been discussing our beliefs and what we would like to be doing with SoMaFusion so here are our latest brainstorming results.

So we spent about 4 hours brainstorming on SoMaFusion today.

Quite the evening this proved to be.

Here are some of the things we went over

• our tagline
• our ethos
• our past projects
• our (hopefully) future projects

By the way – we browsed online for some brainstorming tools and found out that XMind has now joined the open source community (quite cool we think). You can also embed an XMind map viewer into your blog (which definetely gives us ideas).

There is also bubbl.us – a free web application that lets you brainstorm online and it also allows you to embed content.

We also found some useful resources on brainstorming so read on:
Start Talking Nonsense on Blogging Innovation
To Be innovative or To Do Innovation on Innovate on Purpose
Confusing Information with the Form on Polaine – Uncommon Sense